Can an engineer get in trouble for over-use of the horn? A couple of years ago, some jerk on the CSX line through Rochester, NY at 3 a.m. decided to keep blowing his horn from about the city line on the east side all the way through the city. I'm talking about 30-40 blows that I could hear from my house, maybe more on the west side of town. He probably woke up several thousand people!

Also, there’s a chance it was actually just some drunk jerk with an air horn, not an engineer with a locomotive. Also very possible that there was a safety hazard on the tracks and the engineer was averting a collision.

Oh, it was a train, and he blew that horn for probably 6-7 miles, at least. What "hazard" could that possibly be? He blew the horn every 5 seconds for at least 5 minutes as he went through the city. I was beginning to wonder if his air supply would hold out!

To me, it sounded like it was either an engineer on his last trip, who wanted to go out with a bang, or else one that just hates my city.

Its a funny thing how people get all up in arms about the railroad over NOTHING. If It bothers you THAT bad, then why LIVE there? Most likely, the tracks have BEEN there for maybe a century. They want their peace and quiet, but when someone gets RUN OVER at a crossing, OH BOY! The vultures start circling! The lawyers speculate how the engineer didn't blow his whistle. The "poor" victims were so, so "innocent", and the mean old railroad was out to get them. Why, to hear them, and the wild-eyed media tell it, the train jumped off the tracks just so it could chase them down and run over 'em!

Same thing with airports. People will move in next to an existing airport, knowing FULL WELL its there, then demand to be PAID for their own stupidity because the airport is "disturbing" them. Again, WHY didja MOVE there, FOOL?: The companies just can't win: they're durned if they DO, durned if they don't! Its BULL****!

D Alex wrote:OK, I'm asking for a moderator to close this thread, since everybody posting on it is ignoring the original question and just grinding their own axe.

OK, I have never heard of someone getting disciplined for excessive use of the horn. That guy you described may have been heavy handed with the horn, but there may have been a work zone (my employer does a lot of track work at night and hence we are required to sound the horn regardless of the hour) or it may have been police activity, trespassers, etc. The bottom line is better to sound the horn than not. Sorry the town was awoken by that engineer.

If there is a work zone, then the engineer is required to blow the whistle whether there is a quiet zone or not. The poster asked the question, then he apparently didn’t like the answer, which was given by several railroaders, then wants the thread locked! Must be that the reasons we gave for having to blow the whistle weren’t to his liking.

D Alex wrote:OK, I'm asking for a moderator to close this thread, since everybody posting on it is ignoring the original question and just grinding their own axe.

OK, I have never heard of someone getting disciplined for excessive use of the horn. That guy you described may have been heavy handed with the horn, but there may have been a work zone (my employer does a lot of track work at night and hence we are required to sound the horn regardless of the hour) or it may have been police activity, trespassers, etc. The bottom line is better to sound the horn than not. Sorry the town was awoken by that engineer.

One more comment. If you have been on an engine while someone is RACING us to the crossing, there's little kids in the car & you begin to realize she's not gonna stop, only we who have experienced this know the horror of either being ABOUT to hit someone, or actually hitting a car. We can't say why this particular engineer was doing that, but that SINKING feeling just before collision is just AWFUL. Sometimes it traumatizes crews when they hit people, especially little children. There's nothing you can do! I've seen big, burly engineers sitting on the steps of his engine after a collision sobbing. Perhaps THIS particular engineer was reacting to a recent experience and wanted to make SURE everybody knew he was coming.

When it happened to ME, I was deadheading, sitting in the fireman's seat (he was fiddling with the steam heat boiler in the engine room. When that little Pinto raced us and I saw a baby car seat in the back and a tow-headed little boy up front, I thought, "Oh no.................no, no, no! Please stop!"

We were on the Southern Crescent #2. Engines were E-8's. Speed-79 MPH. That car came up, up, then UP onto the crossing...and disappeared under the nose of the engine. Those of us "old heads" who were familiar with the E8, know that the nose is short and slopes downwards. The Pinto disappeared UNDER the nose of the engine while George, the engineer, was blowing staccato blasts on the horn (the recognized danger, or washout signal). We didn't know if we had hit her or not. But George held up his hands about 6 inches apart, and said, "If she'd had another coat of paint, we'd 've got her! We talked about that for the next 15 minutes.

If you LIVE the railroad life, you would understand................. There just might be a REASON for all the whistle-blowing!